Life

Ospaly is Still the Fastest Viking

Filip Ospaly made it two in a row while Lisa Hütthaler celebrated her third 70.3 win of the season in Norway.

by Volker Boch

Continuing her dominating season of European 70.3 racing, Austria’s Lisa Hütthaler broke Mary Beth Ellis’s course record, while the Czech Republic’s Filip Ospaly managed to better his time from last year to claim his own record in Haugesund, a small coastal city on the North Sea.

Ospaly rides away

Normally renowned as a great runner, Filip Ospaly shocked the pro field at Haugesund with a Viking-like ride on the bike. The former Olympic-distance specialist was first out of the water in 21:32. Right behind him was two-time Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt from Australia, who was followed just a few seconds later by Finland’s Panu Lieto. Then came Great Britain’s Ritchie Nicholls, the recent IRONMAN 70.3 UK champion.

Ospaly jumped on his bike and was never seen again thanks to the day’s fastest bike split (2:11:01). The 36-year-old made it to T2 with a comfortable lead of more than four minutes on the rest of the field. In terms of contenders for the win, behind Ospaly was Germany’s Horst Reichel (2013 IRONMAN 70.3 Italy champ) in fourth, 4:31 behind; Nicholls and Kahlefeldt were almost seven-minutes back. Nicholls had the fastest run of the day (1:08:41), but it wasn’t nearly enough to catch Ospaly.

The Czech star’s 1:11:11 run time helped him set a new course record of 3:46:10. Nicholls was the runner up in 3:50:38, ahead of Kahlefeldt (3:53:42). Fourth went to the fastest age grouper, Kyle Buckingham from South Africa, who finished ahead of Reichel.

Hütthaler keeps winning

Great Britain’s Georgie Rutherford led the way in the water, setting the pace for a group of five that included Michelle Vesterby (Denmark), Catriona Morrison (Scotland) and the Norwegian duo of Mette Moe and Kari Lingsom. Rutherford was first out in 24:00 minutes, with Hütthaler finishing in sixth (24:52). It only took the Austrian a few kilometers of riding along the coast line of the North Sea before she was in front. By the time she was done, she was four minutes ahead of Morrison and Moe. Hütthaler ran the half marathon in 1:21:22, which was enough to get her across the line in 4:12:11. Morrison had the fastest run, which got her to the line in second in 4:15:13 ahead of Moe (4:21:01), Vesterby and New Zealand’s Britta Martin.